> Unfortunately, we just don't have the resource within > the SPARC graphics > group to spend any time on all the work that is > required to open source > the drivers for obsolete SPARC hardware. We have > barely enough resource > to adequately support current Sun customers on the > graphics cards that > we OEM from AMD and Creative Labs. I have asked those > companies if we > could explore open source for these drivers (their > confidential > information was used in providing hardware > acceleration), but neither is > willing, at present, to do so. > > > Linda
Granted that those cards dependent on chipsets from other companies might pose a problem; what (aside from the burden of the process itself) precludes opening those for the XVR-1000, XVR-4000, or the like, that (AFAIK, anyway) use Sun-originated GPUs? Failing that, there may be someone out here (very likely not me!) that could do something with register and programming specs and the like; ISTR that the MAJC I know I've seen at least a couple of other people with XVR-1000 cards speak up. I have no idea how much it actually _costs_ to review/release the driver (assuming it's possible), but I wonder if it might be possible for interested parties to pony up at least a portion of that cost directly. I mean, I may have a few bucks to toss around, but not on the order of replacing a perfectly usable system with an Ultra 45+XVR-2500 at about $9k to be at least comparable. If similar math applies to a couple of other people...well, I know _I'd_ rather come up with some low 4-digit amount than a nearly 5-digit amount; multiply that by even a few people, and while it's not much by megacorp standards, it's enough chump change to keep some intern off the streets for a few weeks, I think. Unless Mesa plus DRI becomes an option for Xorg on SPARC, there won't be any UPA _or_ PCI (or backwards compatible PCI-X, but _not_ the incompatible PCI-Express) 3D-accelerated boards left for old-but-not-ancient systems (such as the Sun Blade 2000, otherwise a quite adequate workstation (and space heater, to be sure, esp. with the admittedly power-hungry XVR-1000)). (personally, I'd prefer a UPA card to work under Xorg, leaving the 66MHz slot free for a SAS/SATA card, SunPCI card, or something else; not all that many PCI slots to play with anyway) With Mesa plus DRI, the XVR-100 and XVR-300 would presumably be capable of some sort of 3D-acceleration. (Hopefully the XVR-2500 would still be enough better that they wouldn't undercut it; if not, maybe they should, being cheaper, keeping in mind that the volume vs price tradeoff might keep SPARC desktops from becoming dead like the dodo.) This message posted from opensolaris.org
